Most of my friends disowned me after my coming out in favor of the 2010 “Clash of The Titans” and my saying that I liked it a lot. They saw my liking of the film as a betrayal of the original version that was the last movie done by stop motion visual effects legend Ray Harryhausen. I never understand why nowadays people feel it necessary to have to like one version of a movie over another. Can’t you like two versions of a movie for different reasons? And one of the reasons why I liked 2010’s “Clash of The Titans” is that it wasn’t a slavish remake of the original. It took the basic story and put its own spin on it. Much like how those ancient Greeks took the original myths and legends and every time they retold the story, they added stuff on or left stuff out they didn’t think was important.

It’s the same reason why I like WRATH OF THE TITANS. It has many of the same characters as the previous movies and adds some new ones to change up the character interaction dynamics. It gives Perseus a new motivation to go on an heroic quest. It gets in what I think are some knowing, loving winks to the Harryhausen movie. Bubo the mechanical owl makes another cameo appearance that I didn’t expect, didn’t see coming and made me laugh as the scene he appears in played out. And like the previous movie, I was surprised that I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.

Perseus (Sam Worthington) has been living peacefully for ten years, earning his daily bread as a fisherman. He’s been raising his son Helius (John Bell) alone as his wife Io died giving birth. Perseus is happy with his life and says so to his father Zeus (Liam Neeson) who comes to Perseus for help. Since men no longer pray to the gods their power is fading away and so they cannot keep imprisoned the demons kept in the underworld prison of Tartarus. Perseus has no wish to become involved again in the business of the gods.

It’s up to Zeus, Poseidon (Danny Huston) Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Zeus’ other son Ares (Edgar Ramirez) to go down into Tartarus and fix things. But it turns out to be a trap. Hades and Ares have cut a deal with the imprisoned Kronos, the most powerful of The Titans: they drain Zeus’ power to free Kronos and they will be part of the new pantheon of gods once Kronos is back on top.

Poseidon gets away and gives his trident to Perseus, charging him with passing the weapon on to Poseidon’s demigod son Agenor (Toby Kebbell) Perseus goes one better. After rounding up Agenor and Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike) he sets out to descend into Tartarus and rescue Zeus. To do this he’ll need the help of Hephaestus (Bill Nighy) who constructed Tartarus and the insanely impossible labyrinth the intrepid band have to navigate and survive to reach Zeus. And even after that, Perseus must recover two more powerful weapons to join with the Trident of Poseidon to form The Spear of Triam, the only weapon that can stop Kronos.

I really enjoyed WRATH OF THE TITANS because it’s so unpretentious. This isn’t a movie that’s out to reinvent the genre. Its sole purpose is to tell an entertaining adventure fantasy story for 100 minutes and I felt entertained once it was over. Rosamund Pike takes over as Andromeda from Alexa Davalos who played the role in “Clash of The Titans” and she brings a whole new energy to the role. Which is welcome as Andromeda has much more to do in this movie, strapping on a sword and fighting right alongside Perseus. Toby Kebbell brings some welcome humor to the adventure as the son of Poseidon who is much more of a trickster than the heir to the throne of the God of the Sea. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes have a lot of screen time together in this one in a really nicely performed character arc revolving around their characters that is brought to a resoundingly satisfying conclusion. Sam Worthington appears more relaxed in this movie and allows Perseus some moments of warmth and humor and he even gets to smile. I’ve liked Edgar Ramirez ever since seeing him in “Carlos” and he brings a good intensity to his role as Ares as if he’s been doing this kind of movie all his life.

So should you see WRATH OF THE TITANS? If you saw the 2010 “Clash of The Titans” and didn’t like it then there’s no reason why you should want to see this one. But if like me you did enjoy it then I see no reason why you wouldn’t want to see this one.

Based on the 1981 motion picture “Clash of The Titans” Directed by Desmond Davis and Written by Beverley Cross

When it was confirmed that a remake of the classic 1981 “Clash of The Titans” would be happening, fans of that movie sent up offerings to the Gods of Film that the movie would not suck. The overwhelming consensus seemed to be that the movie would try to copy the magic of Ray Harryhausen’s stop motion visual effects through CGI. I admit myself I had misgivings. I’ll be the first to admit that 1981’s “Clash of The Titans” isn’t Mr. Harryhausen’s best work. It was his last film and he knew that his time was over due to a small film called “Star Wars” that had ushered in a new style of special effects techniques that could be done faster and cheaper. He went out in style, though and while his “Clash of The Titans” isn’t his best movie, it is a helluva lot of fun to watch and one of my all-time favorite movies.

The strength of this version of CLASH OF THE TITANS doesn’t come from it trying to be exactly like the previous movie. We get three signature scenes of the 1981 version: The Medusa stalking Perseus and his men in the ruins of an ancient temple. Perseus stealing the magic eye of The Stygian Witches and forcing them to tell him how to kill The Kraken. And Perseus facing off against The Kraken. We even get to hear Liam Neeson intone those immortal words; “Release The Kraken!” But this CLASH OF THE TITANS goes into a different direction due to the tweaking of the motivations of the main characters. And there are a couple of nice nods to Mr. Harryhausen’s work. Hades commands a squadron of harpies that look a lot like the harpies from “Jason and The Argonauts.” Bubo the mechanical owl has a cameo. The giant scorpions reminded me of the giant scorpions in the original, naturally. But they also reminded me of the giant animals from “The Mysterious Island”

In this one, Perseus (Sam Worthington) doesn’t find out he’s the son of Zeus (Liam Neeson) until he’s up to his eyeballs in his quest to find a way to destroy The Kraken. He’s told of his immortal origins by Io (Gemma Arterton) while he’s being held prisoner in the city of Argos. Perseus has just seen his adopted family killed by Hades (Ralph Fiennes) Brought to the city of Argos, he is witness to another bloody rampage by Hades who informs King Cepheus (Vincent Regan) that he will unleash The Kraken in ten days unless Princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) is given up as a sacrifice. All of this is part of a long game by Hades to influence humans so that they will stop worshipping the gods and start to fear them. Zeus and the other gods grow weaker as a result while Hades grows stronger as his power is nourished by fear and hatred. Hades has been resentful of Zeus for eons ever since Zeus tricked him into becoming Lord of The Underworld and he figures it’s time he got the chance to live among the clouds and walk around in sparkly armor like the rest of the gods.

Upon learning that Perseus is a demigod, King Cepheus asks him to lead his personal guard to find a way to save his daughter. Perseus agrees. Not because he’s in love with Andromeda as in the original. He’s hellbent on revenging his murdered family and spitting in the collective eye of the gods while he does it.

Unlike the original, we get to know the soldiers that accompany Perseus on his quest, especially their leader, Draco (Mads Mikkelsen) who trains Perseus to fight and challenges him to embrace his dual heritage as man and god for the betterment of all and not reject it out of childish spite. It’s a good relationship between the two. And the characterization of the soldiers makes them a mythological version of “The Dirty Dozen” and not just a nameless bunch of red shirts.

And I like how in this version, Perseus actually has to work for his victories. He’s given an enchanted sword and the use of the winged horse Pegasus but he prefers not to use either one until he realizes that unless he makes peace with himself he will never save Andromeda.

It sounds like there’s a little more psychological and philosophical depth here than in the original and there is. But it doesn’t get in the way of the action and there is enough to satisfy. This is another movie that people love to bash because of the CGI but I’m not one of them. The stalking scene with The Medusa here doesn’t live up to the original, I’ll admit. It’s nowhere near as creepy as the original which still gives me goose bumps when I watch it. But it’s effective in doing its job in bringing a mythological world and it’s creatures to life.

So should you see 2010’s CLASH OF THE TITANS? If you didn’t see it in theaters because you listened to those who told you how lousy the CGI effects were and how wooden the acting is and that the story stunk, I’m here to tell you that it’s nowhere near that bad. I’m not going to lie and tell you it’s a masterpiece. But I am going to tell you that’s it’s a movie worth your time if you’re looking for solid entertainment. It’s not the Ray Harryhausen version and it’s not supposed to be. It’s its own movie and it earns that on its own strengths. Enjoy.

In the interest of full disclosure I should start out by saying that I haven’t read the book the movie THE HUNGER GAMES is based on nor did I have any intention of reading it. Now before you start jumping up and down and calling me a hater, hear me out. THE HUNGER GAMES is a Young Adult novel and I generally don’t read Young Adult novels because…well, let’s face it: I’m not a Young Adult. That’s not to say I wouldn’t read it if recommended to me by folks I trust. I ain’t that much of a snob. It’s just that I leave the Young Adult novels to the young adults. After all, there are things I read that I think should be strictly for adults my age that they shouldn’t be reading. It’s all about respecting boundaries for me.

But I ended up seeing THE HUNGER GAMES because of a couple of reasons: the first is that since the movie opened there has been a small firestorm due to some really nasty and unpleasant racially inflammatory tweets going around. Seems as if some ‘fans’ of the book were upset upon seeing the movie and that some their beloved characters were (horrors!) played by black actors and actresses. Now if they are fans of the book as they claim they they must not have read the descriptions of the characters. From what I’ve read, the way Suzanne Collins describes a lot of the characters they could be biracial or black. If you’ve been hanging out here for any length of time or listened to me on Better In the Dark then you’ve heard me quote Harlan Ellison: “We are not entitled to our opinions; we are entitled to our informed opinions.” So I felt that in order to know what I was talking about if this subject came up in discussion with my friends and/or enemies, I should at least see the movie.

The second reason? Patricia wanted to see it.

Before jumping into the movie proper I should get out of the way that I don’t see what the fuss about the black characters are. The way the characters are written, they could honestly have been played by any ethnicity.

THE HUNGER GAMES take place in a future North America that has been devastated by war. Rebuilt into the nation of Panem it is not divided into 48 states but 13 Districts. District 13 attempted to overthrow the oppressive government with no success. Ever since then, The Capitol of Panem created The Hunger Games. A yearly competitive televised pageant in which two teenagers from each District between the ages of 12 to 18 are selected by lottery. The teens are trained, placed in an arena and fight until only one is left alive.

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to save her sister Primrose (Willow Shields) from The Hunger Games. Along with Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) she is sent to The Capitol for training. They have an entire staff to supervise them including chaperone Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) alcoholic mentor Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) himself a survivor of The Hunger Games and Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) their stylist.

In between training and televised interviews with Hunger Games commentator Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) Abernathy struggles to get Katniss to open up and be more friendly to attract ‘sponsors’ who will help her stay alive through the competition. The situation is complicated by Peeta, who during his interview claims to have been in love with Katniss ever since they were children. But is he telling the truth or is he playing to the audience, hoping to win favor from sponsors? And does any of this matter when they’re in the arena?

For a movie that promises mass slaughter, THE HUNGER GAMES doesn’t deliver. In fact, most of the killings take place off camera and the ones that we do see are shot in that mollyfoggin’ shaky cam so that it’s impossible to tell what’s going on. I enjoyed the look of the movie as it has wonderful costume and production design. The Capital feels like a real city inhabited by real people. But I don’t understand the point of building us up with the promise of seeing these characters fight to the death and then not showing it. And the movie is so emotionally distant so that when someone does die it has no impact, no feeling. At least not to me as I feel I never got to know any of these characters at all. It doesn’t help that the movie is directed with such seriousness and grim despair. The movie badly needs energy and it just doesn’t have it at all. It’s actually pretty dull going most of the way. My thanks go to Woody Harrelson and surprisingly, Lenny Kravitz as the both of them are highly entertaining to watch and they kept my interest up.

So should you see THE HUNGER GAMES? Chances are if you’re a fan of the books then you already have or plan to do so and so nothing I say will change your mind. And that’s okay. I get the very strong idea that this movie was made very much with the fans in mind and that’s okay. If you’re curious, check it out. It’s satisfying entertainment, the visual equivalent of fried chicken and baked potato.

142 minutes

PG-13

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It’s our first Point Five Episode, where the Boys From Brooklyn discuss movie posters, marketing, the true definition of being et, and former American Idol contestants in their underwear. Even though Point Fives are shorter mini-sodes, it doesn’t mean you won’t get the usual Tom and Derrick mixture of hardcore knowledge, tangents and comedy. You don’t want sharks with cameras attached to chew off your butt, so get to clicking!

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Before I start this review it’s only fair that all you action adventure/horror/crime thriller fans please go on upstairs and avail yourselves of the refreshments provided. This isn’t a review for you. Unless of course you’ve got a daughter, younger sister or niece you want to spend time with but worry about what kind of movie you can watch together that hasn’t got a bit of bad language and/or nudity. A movie that’s actually fun to watch and promotes positive values. But also quite funny in its own way. Not Laugh-Out-Belly-Laugh-Loud but funny in that it’s got a sharp take on how younger and older women interact in a setting that most of us never get to see.

1966’s THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELS takes place in a Catholic girls school over a period of four years where we watch the emotional and spiritual growth of two of the main characters: Mary Clancy (Haley Mills) and Rachel Devery (June Harding). The two girls are a perfect match: Mary’s a born leader and Rachel is a born follower. As you watch their friendship develop and grow you can’t help but think that maybe this is how Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz would have been if they’d met as young girls. We get an idea of how much of a problem Mary is going to be as in the first scene of the movie she’s smoking a cigarette on the train taking her to The St. Francis Academy For Girls and mouths off to Bruce Wayne’s Aunt Harriet herself (Madge Blake) The character is never identified by name but I like to think this is actually Aunt Harriet. Just the movie and comic book geek in me at working to make a connection, I guess.

Once Mary and Rachel arrive at St. Francis they meet the nuns who will be their teachers for the next four years: Sister Clarissa (Mary Wickes) is more at home on a basketball court or fixing a car engine than in the chapel. The impossibly beautiful Sister Constance (Camilla Sparv) is going off to work with a colony of lepers, an act that totally baffles Mary as she can’t imagine anyone taking the risk of sacrificing such beauty. Sister Liguori (Marge Redmond) uses horse handicapping as the way to teach her girls mathematics. And there’s a bunch of other nuns, all with their own eccentric traits but they’re used as insights into their characters and not just as props. And then there’s Reverend Mother (Rosalind Russell) who immediately clashes with Mary and a lot of the movie is about how these two very different women of very different ages in life and from very different backgrounds but so similar in attitude start out disliking each other immensely but grow to respect and admire the other. Reverend Mother’s clashing with Mary soon turns into a war of wills as it seems as if Mary will simply not adhere to the rules of the school and indeed, goes out of her way to pull elaborate pranks that continually disrupt and cause chaos. There’s a great scene where Reverend Mother is on the verge of expelling Mary from the school but has a talk with her old friend Sister Liguori that gives you the distinct impression that in their youth, Reverend Mother and Sister Ligouri weren’t all that different from Mary and Rachel. Reverend Mother explains to her old friend why she won’t expel Mary and the resolution of that scene had even an old grinch like me feeling a tug at the heart strings.

There isn’t a plot in this movie to speak of. It’s really a series of incidents that take place over the four years. But the transitions between one year and another are really imaginative due to the direction of Ida Lupino. Most of us know her as an actress but she’s famous inHollywoodfor being one of the first female directors. And a damn good director that earned her respect. Ida Lupino has shots where she shows the passing of seasons in unobtrusive yet innovative ways. A character will be bundled up in winter clothes and look out a window, see other characters playing volleyball and suddenly we’re into the next year of school and its spring.

Haley Mills is quite good is this movie. She was looking to break away from the image she had while working at Disney and while I’m not familiar with her Disney work I liked what she did in this movie. I’m also not all that familiar with Rosalind Russell but she was great as Reverend Mother. I enjoyed every moment she was on screen and she has a simply wonderful scene with Haley Mills where she talks about the life she wanted before she found her calling as a nun. If you see this movie, watch the expressions on both their faces. They convey far more than their words.

So should you see THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELS? Like I said earlier, if you’re a mother looking to watch a movie with your daughters aged 8-12 or an aunt looking to spend time with your nieces, by all means, give this movie a try. It’s got wonderful performances by Rosalind Russell, Haley Mills, Marge Redmond, Mary Wickes and a great cameo by Jim Hutton. It won’t appeal to most of you bloodthirsty maniacs who normally read my reviews and are by now wondering what I’m currently smoking, snorting or sniffing but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of viewing or respect. The next time you pick out movies to rent or stream on Netflix, give this one a try. It’s a lot of fun for the audience it’s intended for and even for those who want to step outside of their normal movie habits a bit.

Since I’m a major fan of pulp action adventure there’s very little chance of you getting a bad review of THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR outta me. I think it’s only fair to tell you that up front. Even though I did miss the direction of Stephen Sommers and Maria Bello is no substitute for Rachel Weisz. And yes, the climatic battle between the two undead armies did go on about five minutes longer than it should have and it’s true that Brendan Fraser didn’t have to yell: “I hate mummies!” every ten minutes. But I was willing to overlook all that and just allow myself to enjoy what is essentially a B-movie with an A-budget. It’s not the best of ‘The Mummy’ movies but it does exactly what it’s designed to do and really, that’s all I ask from any movie.

Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Evelyn (Maria Bello) live in a splendid English country mansion big enough to have its own zip code. They’ve retired from their life of wild adventuring and while Rick attempts to become a proper country squire, Evelyn has become a best-selling writer, using the adventures she’s had with Rick as the basis for her books. The adventuring is handled now by their son, Alex (Luke Ford) who is something of a maverick like his dad and has quit college to join an expedition to discover and excavate the tomb of Han, The Dragon Emperor (Jet Li)

Alex soon learns that he’s in way over his head as there are two factions fighting over the mummy of Emperor Han. It turns out that Han was cursed by the witch Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh) more than two thousand years ago to remain encased in living rock but he can be revived if one knows how. One faction knows how and it involves a giant diamond, The Eye Of Shangri-La while the other faction mostly consists of Zi Juan’s daughter Lin (Isabella Leong) and Zi herself (didn’t I mention both mother and daughter are immortal? I didn’t? Sorry, my bad) Rick and Evelyn are soon heading to Shanghai to help out their son, picking up Evelyn’s brother Jonathan (John Hannah) and a half-drunk pilot, Mad Dog Maguire as backup.

It’s a race against time to find the mystical city ofShangri-La and stop Han from reclaiming his humanity and his awesome mystic powers to control the five elements (earth, air, fire, water and metal) which he needs to resurrect his army of warriors and resume his ambition of ruling the world. Considering that he’s now in the year 1946 and his men are armed with spears and swords while modern armies have bombs, machine guns and tanks, I must say that admire Han’s confidence. Me, I don’t think that the modern world would have sweated Han too much, even with his magic powers but then we wouldn’t have much of a movie, would we?

How much you want to see this movie depends on how much you like pulp adventure, Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh or the previous ‘Mummy’ movies I would guess. The ‘Mummy’ movies have been looked upon as ‘Indiana Jones Lite’ but I think that’s unfair. There’s more enough room for two globe-hopping adventurers in the movies today and indeed, back in the 30’s and 40’s where these movies are set you could go to your local theater or newsstand and there were literally dozens of movies and magazines featuring two-fisted men of action that were the grandfathers of both Rick O’Connell and Indiana Jones.

What sets the ‘Mummy’ movies apart and especially TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR is the interaction between this family of adventurers. Alex has grown up into his own man and his style of adventuring is different from his mom and his dad’s. But even though father and son have their differences they can still bond over mutual interests such as what’s the best machine gun to use against a rebel Chinese army trying to kill you or exactly how much dynamite it takes to blow up a golden shrine. Evelyn is trying hard to be a lady and a respectable mom but she’d much rather be raiding tombs and destroying evil mummies trying to take over the world. Jonathan has become a successful nightclub owner but he drops it all to help out his brother-in-law, sister and nephew save the world. Of course the fact that Rick and Evelyn have The Eye Of Shangri-La has nothing to do with it.

By now Brendan Fraser can do a ‘Mummy’ movie without thinking about it. He turns in a dependable, solid performance and here he’s not just a rough-and-tumble mercenary with a quick quip for every occasion. He’s now a husband and father and he takes a little more time to think about what he’s doing and how it affects the people he loves. Luke Ford does an okay job but I liked the relationship between Rick and Alex better in the previous ‘Mummy’ movie. Here Alex has an attitude toward his father for much of the movie and I never quite understood why. I like Maria Bello as an actress but for some reason she didn’t do anything for me here. She did have a cute little scene during a book reading where she’s asked if the character in the book is anything like her. Her answer kinda reminded me of George Lazenby’s classic: “This never happened to the other fellow” line from “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”

Michelle Yeoh walks away with the acting honors in this one. Her character has a fascinating back story and the first ten or fifteen minutes of the movie relates that in such a way that you almost wish the entire movie would continue that story. She’s never anything less than convincing and of course any time you get to see two such masters such as her and Jet Li fight on screen that’s a definite bonus. Don’t look for a lot martial arts from Jet Li in this one. He does have some nice fight scenes but nothing spectacular. And I’m always delighted to see Russell Wong in anything as I was a major fan of ‘Vanishing Son’ and he has a small but pivotal role in this movie.

So should you see THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR? I would say yes. It’s a totally undemanding movie and asks nothing more than you sit back, relax and have fun. It’s got hidden tombs with lethal death traps, undead armies, Abominable Snowmen, Shangri-La, plenty of chases, fights and last minutes escapes from fates worse than death. And it’s done with style, good humor, top notch stunts and special effects. It’s one of the most enjoyable Saturday Afternoon Movies I’ve seen in quite a while.

Anytime and every time I watch a movie that is based on incidents that actually happened or that starts off with the words; ‘This Is A True Story’ I immediately start thinking of bovine excrement. Because for me, unless somebody was right there with a camera at the moment that it happened, you’re not accurately documenting events as they actually happened. And even then, documentaries can be edited to reflect the attitudes, prejudices and politics of the filmmaker (I’m looking at you, Michael Moore) But even that’s all right with me. We’re human beings and I don’t think that any of us can be truly and completely objective about anything that we passionately care about. And that includes politics. A subject that in the past decade has polarized this country in a way none of us have ever been seen before and probably never dreamed could happen.

My point being that I can’t take movies based on true events entirely seriously. They’re made long after the fact when people have had time to analyze, scrutinize, discuss and dissect what happened and why. Factor in that everything everybody remembers or doesn’t remember is flavored by their emotional, mental and even physical condition before and after adds up to too much of a gap for me to accept everything presented in a movie based on true events in good faith. But that was before we entered the age of YouTube, CNN, TMZ and two dozen 24-hour news channels. This is pointed out by McCain Campaign Chairman Steve Schmidt (Woody Harrelson) to Sarah Palin (Julianne Moore) early on in GAME CHANGE and he’s right on point. The 2008 Presidential Election was without a doubt the most compelling and important election in American history as it was the election that saw an African-American man elected President of The United States. It was played out in public in a way that elections never had been before thanks to the communication and social media that now dominates and in so many ways infects our society.

And it also gave us Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska who was picked by Senator John McCain’s staff to be his running mate. Both are still with us and if GAME CHANGE teaches us anything is that even if Sarah Palin didn’t become Vice President of The United States, she still won. Presidential hopeful Senator John McCain (Ed Harris) is losing the race and he knows it. In desperation he calls up genius political strategist Steve Schmidt and begs him to come on board his team and save his campaign. Schmidt’s plan is to find a running mate who can compete with the rock star popularity and megawatt charisma of Barack Obama. Campaign Manager Rick Davis (Peter MacNicol) thinks he’s got just the thing: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin who appears to have all the qualities they need and more.

She’s a married mother of five, everybody loves her, she’s accessible, she’s extraordinarily popular and it certainly doesn’t hurt that even after having five kids she’s gorgeous and looks wonderful on camera. The problem is that she is woefully unprepared for the job. She’s devastating in public appearances where she demonstrates a rock star personality equal to Barack Obama’s. She’s spectacular when giving a speech. But in horrendous one-on-one interviews with the press it’s as obvious as a slap upside the head that she doesn’t know a thing about domestic and foreign policy. She’s ignorant of basic government practices and information that fifth graders know. She can’t even name a single newspaper even though she claims to read “a lot of them every day” She makes statements that are blatantly untrue. And it soon becomes clear to Schmidt, Davis, McCain speechwriter Mark Salter (Jamey Sheridan) and Senior Advisor Nicolle Wallace (Sarah Paulson) that they’ve been given the mother of sow’s ears and they have absolutely no idea of how to turn it into a silk purse.

I wish that HBO had went ahead and made a whole mini-series based on the book as it deals with a whole lot more than just the McCain/Palin campaign which actually is only one section of the book. But that’s a small quibble. Taken purely as drama, GAME CHANGE is worth seeing just for the really strong cast that sells the story. Ed Harris, Woody Harrelson, Jamey Sheridan, Peter MacNicol, Sarah Paulson and Ron Livingston are all great here. And as Sarah Palin, Julianne Moore looks and sounds so much like her that it’s downright scary. And while it would be easy for the movie to give us the Tina Fey version of Sarah Palin, the movie is remarkably fair in its depiction of her. We see the opportunistic Sarah Palin who suddenly found herself thrust onto the world stage and promptly milked it for all it was worth. But we also see the frightened and very much out of her league Sarah Palin who starts out as a goldfish among sharks but quickly learns how to be a barracuda. I also liked how the movie showed the many times when John McCain was urged by his staff to run a dirty, mud-slinging campaign and refused. As played by Ed Harris he comes across as a man of dignity and honor.

It wouldn’t take much for GAME CHANGE to have been pushed into a full-blown political satire as it comes awful close at times. And through the use of today’s technology which enables the actors to be flawlessly inserted by digital black magic into archival footage, the line between fact and fiction is erased far too well, if you ask me. Well worth your time to watch if you have HBO. And if you don’t, be sure to look for it on DVD or Netflix.

120 minutes.

There’s no rating for GAME CHANGE. While there is no sex or violence in the movie, be advised that the f-bomb is dropped numerous times.